Subjects: Sports Policy; drugs programme; Peter Nugent; Woodside-Shell merger.
E&OE................................
JOURNALIST:
So what does this announcement mean for sports funding?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it means that this Government is allocating a record amount. It means an additional $161 million over a four-year period, that's over and above the money that was previously allocated. It delivers in full and, in fact, goes beyond the commitment I made on behalf of the Government at the time of the Sydney Olympics. It not only provides extra money to support our elite athletes' excellence in sport but, importantly, it also provides an additional amount of about $32 million over four years to provide greater grassroots involvement and that's tremendously important because we have two objectives. We want to make sure we continue to perform outstandingly at an elite level but we also want to get more people, particularly younger people, involved at a grassroots level in sports activity and sports participation. The two really are complementary, as far as the Government is concerned, and we've had those two objectives in mind in what we've done.
JOURNALIST:
There was concern that there'd be a withdrawal of funds after the Olympics.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that concern has been totally put to rest by this. There will be no withdrawal, in fact, there will be more resources. And I indicated at the time of the Olympics that we were not going to see a diminution of funding but rather we were going to continue it at the same level, effectively, as had been established for the Sydney Olympics, which was meant originally really as a one-off. But we've decided to continue that and we have, in fact, added to it. And in every way it's a policy that will meet and, indeed, exceed the commitment I made last year. It has been developed in consultation with the Sports Commission and the Australian Olympic Committee and others. And I want to thank Peter Bartels and John Coates and others who've worked carefully - also the Paralympic movement, to Greg Hartung and others involved in that movement. They, of course, will enjoy the same proportionate level of support as do the Olympics. And, importantly, also it contributes another $7 million to our anti-drugs campaign. And I take this opportunity of endorsing, again, the statement of support I gave to Australian athletes a short while ago in the wake of a certain incident when I expressed my confidence in the stance that Australian athletes, particularly swimmers, have taken against drugs in sport.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister we've heard some very concerning news overnight that one of your colleagues, Peter Nugent, has passed away. Can you comment on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, I was quite shocked and saddened to learn of Peter's death. He died, apparently, of a heart attack at his home in the early hours of this morning. I've spoken to his wife, Carol, and conveyed to her, on behalf of all of Peter's Liberal Parliamentary colleagues, our sadness at his death. He was a fine colleague and a good friend. He'd represented the people of Aston in the Federal Parliament since 1990. He had a particular interest in foreign policy issues and matters effecting the disadvantaged and minority groups and he will be very greatly missed. We are all quite upset. He was only 62, and it happened very suddenly and it's a very sad day for the Liberal Party.
JOURNALIST:
The Tough on Drugs part of the policy, exactly what will that involve - new research, new testing methods, more testing?
PRIME MINISTER:
That's right. All of those things it will involve. Look, it is just another earnest of our determination to make it as hard as possible for cheats to prosper, to use the old expression.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, how will you ensure that elite and non-elite sports have a fair say in the division of this funding?
PRIME MINISTER:
We've been careful to include a slightly wider range of sports in the Excellence Programme. I mean, we are including some, for the first time, some non-Olympic sports. Netball is one of the major beneficiaries of that expanded programme. And we will make certain, through the use of the AIS and the advice we get, that there will be a fair distribution of the proceeds. In relation to the grassroots campaign, we're going to involve local sporting clubs, we're going to involve schools. There's a lot of unutilised capacity in government schools around Australia and we think that could be used a lot more effectively. This has been a view of mine in relation to a number of activities for quite some time. It's a huge capital investment by the Australian community and it is, in fact, idle for the bulk of the year because of the limited school hours and school holidays and the like, and weekends. So we have an opportunity to, in partnership with the States, to more effectively utilise those assets.
JOURNALIST:
So Prime Minister, it's not just the sports that have done exceptionally well that are getting the money? You're saying sports that haven't won gold medals will also get a share of the funds?
PRIME MINISTER:
There will be an expansion of the Excellence Programme to include some sports, some non-Olympic sports. I mean, netball is an example, you know, it's a very prominent example of sports that haven't been assisted before.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard could some sports that had a lot of funding before the Olympics end up with less money out of this program?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that's certainly not the design. I can't imagine that anybody would be unhappy with this policy.
JOURNALIST:
Will there be any sort of performance criteria?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh well, obviously there's.I mean, with all public money there is accountability. I mean, everybody's got to be accountable. We're all accountable. I'm accountable. You're even accountable.
JOURNALIST:
The situation with Woodside and Costello's decision, the markets have been reacting not so well this morning and yesterday.
PRIME MINISTER:
I wouldn't share that view. I think the markets have reacted with a great deal of maturity. The Treasurer took the right decision and his decision has my strong and unequivocal support.
JOURNALIST:
How much was it a political decision?
PRIME MINISTER:
It was a decision in the national interest and it was in the national interest, in his view, in accordance with the responsibility he had under the Foreign Takeovers Act to block Shell's bid. Now, that's not an act of hostility to Shell or, indeed, an act of approval for this or that company. It was merely a considered conclusion of his according to the law that it would not be in the national interest for the takeover to go ahead. And I believe that it was the right decision.
JOURNALIST:
Last week you alluded to the fact that you and Costello had disagreed on this issue.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I did not allude to that fact at all. They were the musings of a particular journalist. I made it perfectly clear that my comments about the fact that I wanted a Treasurer with intellectual rigour did not relate in any way to this particular issue. I totally agree with the decision he's taken on this issue.
JOURNALIST:
Did you pressure him on that to make that decision?
PRIME MINISTER:
He's his own man. He made his own decision. There was no pressure.
JOURNALIST:
What message do you think this sends to foreign investors overseas though?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think it sends the very simple message that this country remains open for foreign investment. Foreign investment policy always allows that occasionally in the national interest a proposal might get rejected. I know of no country that runs a foreign investment policy that never rejects anything. It wouldn't be a foreign investment policy then, you wouldn't need to have one.
JOURNALIST:
Is the government under an obligation to define the national interest rule?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I think this idea that you've got to have a tight definition of the national interest is a huge mistake. I mean, Ministers are elected.governments are elected to make judgements and to exercise discretion and if in the long continuity of events they get those judgements wrong then they pay for that at the hands of their political masters, and that's the Australian people. But the idea that you've got to define everything and try to codify it is wrong because that is limiting. You need flexibility. And I would be totally opposed to any attempt to codify the national interest in the Foreign Takeovers Act. That would be a huge limitation on what ought to be a fairly wide-ranging discretion for the Treasurer of the day.
Okay, can I just finally say that this is a tremendously important day for Australian sport. I do want to again record my thanks to Jackie Kelly and to Peter Bartels and to Kieren, a member of the Sports Commission, and to John Coates and everybody else who's played such a major role in this. Thanks a lot.
[Ends]